THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ICONOGRAPHY

Abstract

“Maybe the Garden is the most beautiful image of richness, the most smiling expression of civilization and the supreme luxury of any culture.” The iconography of the past ceturies suplys sensitive informations about reality, as it was lived and perceped in those times. This sensitive aproach is necessary because „[...] on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.” The iconography of the past centuries consists in: old maps (most of them military maps); old cadastral plans; old plans of the cities and of the main estates; old engravings; old paintings; photos from the end of the 19 century and the beginning of the 20 century. Old iconography is very important in historical research, restoration and restitution of some old elements and details. Actual images are very important for a correct comparison with the old ones, to understand the evolution of a phenomenon and for the next generations’ researches. Paintings and engraves offer useful information, charming details, in a very precise manner. Denia Mateescu supports this idea: “Romantic painters are the modelers of an epoch in which the nostalgia for the past and its vestiges are very important.” The importance of the image is according to its power to disseminate information and to induce personal reactions and meanings to each viewer. The word communicates the author’s own vision in a more pregnant way than the image, even the image is a personal vision too, by creating it or by choosing one or another of them. In painting, graphic arts and partially in photography, the personal, sensitive perception of the author is on the first plan, but image offers the measure of the beauty and the lifestyle in those times in a concrete manner. Image is an invitation to implicate in reading a research, an invitation to create your own opinion, starting from a point of view. The image is versatile, in a continuous change according to the seasons, to the flying years, to the successive generations, to the fashionable or the conservator behavior of the people. Image’s value is increasing according to its age, just like the aroma, the flavor and the power of wine.